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Posts Tagged ‘Gurus’

IBM keeps light pulse bandwagon rolling, uses ‘em for chip-to-chip communication

Lenovo loves its red mousing nipple, Apple digs its aluminum and IBM adores those light pulses. Nearly two full years after we heard this very company touting breakthroughs in science thanks to a nanophotonic switch, in flies a similar technique from Yorktown Heights that could “greatly further energy efficient computing.” As the story goes, gurus at IBM have figured out how to replace electrical signals that communicate via copper wires between computer chips with tiny silicon circuits that chat using pulses of light. The device is called a nanophotonic avalanche photodetector, and according to Dr. T.C. Chen, this kind of embedded optical interconnection makes the “prospect of building power-efficient computer systems with performance at the Exaflop level” something that could be seen in the not-so-distant future. Reportedly, the avalanche photodetector demonstrated by IBM is the world’s fastest device of its kind, able to receive optical information signals at 40Gbps and simultaneously multiply them tenfold. We know that’s over some of your (read: our) heads, but there’s a sufficiently nerdy video after the break that gets right down to the whos, whats, whys and wheres.

Continue reading IBM keeps light pulse bandwagon rolling, uses ‘em for chip-to-chip communication

IBM keeps light pulse bandwagon rolling, uses ‘em for chip-to-chip communication originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 07 Mar 2010 20:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Caltech gurus whip up highly efficient, low cost flexible solar cell
Solar cells are cute and all, but let’s be real — these things are far too inefficient for mainstream use. Scientists at the California Institute of Technology are working hard to remedy that very issue, and they’ve recently concocted a “new type of flexible solar cell that enhances the absorption of sunlight and efficiently converts its photons into electrons.” The solution relies on arrays of long, thin silicon wires embedded onto a polymer substrate, which uses just a fraction of the expensive semiconductor materials required by conventional solar cells. According to professor Harry Atwater, these cells have “surpassed the conventional light-trapping limit for absorbing materials” for the first time, and we’re told that the arrays can convert between 90 and 100 percent of the photons they absorb into electrons, and yes, that does mean that they have a near-perfect internal quantum efficiency. Hit the source link for all the technobabble, and cross your fingers for this stuff to get the honored approval of the Governator.

Caltech gurus whip up highly efficient, low cost flexible solar cell originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 28 Feb 2010 01:11:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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WD’s ‘Advanced Format’ Caviar Green HDD gets benchmarked, minor benefits found
Western Digital has yet to actively market its “advanced format” hard drives — in fact, there’s a decent chance you’ve no idea what we’re talking about if you weren’t tuned in on December 11th. In short, it’s a technology that alters a hard drive’s sector size from 512 bytes (the standard for the past three decades) to 4096K, which enables the ECC data to be stored in a more efficient manner. Just recently, WD began to ship Advanced Format Caviar Green hard drives, and the benchmarking gurus over at Hot Hardware strapped one in to see exactly how much of the hype was warranted. For starters, they debunked the thought that Advanced Format drives offered more usable space; Windows reported 931GB of free space on both AF and non-AF 1TB drives. They also go on to explain how to make AF drives play nice with Windows XP, and on the testing front, they found that an aligned AF Caviar Green drive could (mostly) hang with the higher end (and more expensive) Caviar Black. Pop that source link for the full skinny, particularly if you’re a WinXP user looking to snag a new drive.

WD’s ‘Advanced Format’ Caviar Green HDD gets benchmarked, minor benefits found originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 27 Feb 2010 02:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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UMich gurus greatly reduce gadget energy consumption (at the expense of awesomeness)
Mama always told us that there’d be trade-offs in life, but we aren’t so sure we’re kosher with this one. As the story goes, a team of Wolverines from the University of Michigan figured out a solution to an age-old problem: effectively lowering power consumption by a significant amount in electronic devices. Anyone with a smartphone yearns for better battery life, and while Stevie J may argue that no one reads for ten hours straight, we’d still rather have the option than not. The development revolves around “near-threshold computing” (NTC), which allows electronic wares to operate at lower voltages than normal, in turn lowering energy consumption. Researchers estimate that power energy requirements could be lowered by “10 to 100 times or more,” but unfortunately, that low-voltage operation would lead to “performance loss, performance variation, and memory and logic failures.” We appreciate the hard work, folks, but could you hit us back when the side effects are somewhat less daunting?

Filed under: Science

UMich gurus greatly reduce gadget energy consumption (at the expense of awesomeness) originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 20 Feb 2010 10:33:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Citrix Nirvana phone provides the full desktop experience — BYO keyboard and monitor (video)

Citrix is something of a storied name in the IT industry, once the leader in remote desktop apps, now looking to make a big return with the Nirvana phone concept. The idea has been around for awhile, but partnership with mobile virtualization gurus Open Kernel Labs gives it new legs. Nirvana phone is just a minimum set of fairly achievable hardware specs (528MHz ARM processor, 256MB ROM, 192MB RAM) required to facilitate remote access to a full desktop. The idea is you simply plug the phone into a monitor, then connect to a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse (or use the phone as a touchpad), and, hey presto, you have a full desktop experience without having a full desktop. In theory you could pocket your smartphone and leave that clunky Targus bag in your cubicle, but should duty call while you’re away we’re not entirely sure where you’re going to find a disused monitor and keyboard ripe for the plugging. Still, it’s interesting tech, demonstrated remotely for you below.

Continue reading Citrix Nirvana phone provides the full desktop experience — BYO keyboard and monitor (video)

Citrix Nirvana phone provides the full desktop experience — BYO keyboard and monitor (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 02 Feb 2010 07:47:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Evolving robots navigate a maze, help each other, plot descruction of mankind
You’ll say the whole Robot Apocalypse meme is played out. We say it’s your lack of focus that’ll eventually be the downfall of society. Gurus at the Laboratory of Intelligent Systems in the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale of Lausanne have been working on “evolving robots” for quite some time, but the latest breakthrough is easily the most astounding (and in turn, terrifying) of all. According to new research that was just made public, a gaggle of robots programmed to use Darwinian selection in order to learn, evolve and mutate have now successfully moved sans collisions through a maze and helped each other push tokens around in order to achieve a common goal. Moreover, some of the creatures even displayed early signs of a predatory-prey relationship, which effectively assures mankind that these cute little learners will one day assimilate to rule the world however they please. Keep laughing if you must — it’ll probably make the painful sting of reality a bit easier to take when Doomsday rolls around.

Continue reading Evolving robots navigate a maze, help each other, plot descruction of mankind

Evolving robots navigate a maze, help each other, plot descruction of mankind originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 01 Feb 2010 07:49:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Palm crafting GSM versions of the Pre Plus and Pixi Plus?

Pardon us if we’re playing the role of Captain Obvious here, but just a heads up: we’ve got some pretty solid evidence before our eyes that Palm has GSM versions of both Verizon’s Pre Plus and Pixi Plus in the pipe. Said proof comes via the certification gurus at TUV Rheinland who’ve listed both a P101UNA and P121UNA in their systems from Palm; P101 and P121 are the numeric codes for the Pre Plus and Pixi Plus, respectively, and “UNA” indicates a GSM variant (versus the deliciously underhanded “EWW” for CDMA). Now, neither AT&T nor Palm have given a lick of indication what two models they’ll be releasing later this year — but this is certainly a convenient coincidence, isn’t it?

Palm crafting GSM versions of the Pre Plus and Pixi Plus? originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 23 Jan 2010 10:11:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The start-up chronicles: Experiments with Twitter

(Editor’s Note: The Start-up Chronicles is a weekly feature giving an inside view of the trials of a bootstrapped start-up – The Cost Savings Guy. CEO and founder Bruce Judson is also the author of “Go It Alone!: The Secret to Building A Successful Business on Your Own” and a senior faculty fellow at the Yale School of Management.)

As a direct marketer, I am a strong believer in experiments – even when I expect them to fail.

The ideal test is small, involving limited time or resources, and providing an indication of whether I should invest further time and energy.  It is, in some ways, an iterative process, where each piece of learning leads me to effectively increase my commitment to a specific strategy – or lets me know that my time is better spent elsewhere. Ultimately, there’s no substitute for first-hand experience.

I bring this up because I’ve started using Twitter lately. This is a service that never appealed to me.  It always seemed it was primarily a way to monitor what others are saying about your company online. And while that’s valuable, it’s possible to monitor this activity without participating in the service itself.

In connection with the rollout of The Cost Savings Guy, I did not believe that Twitter would prove to be a significant source of valuable traffic. But, not knowing this definitively, I decided to set-up an account and make a small effort (15 minutes a day) to build a following and join the conversation.

As part of this test, I also read several articles and skimmed one book by self-described Twitter gurus. Ultimately, I found most of this advice to be valueless or simply wrong.

My initial reaction was that Twitter was not a place for conversation, but the world’s largest souk, with millions of people proclaiming their wares. I decided to push forward, though (certain that this would simply confirm my initial lack of interest.)

I started identifying people with interests in small business and entrepreneurship, following them, and offering my own Tweets. I also attempted to engage in several conversations. My results were, as expected, uninspiring.

A few weeks later, we started developing our next phase of The Cost Savings Guy, which will involve implementing some innovative ideas geared toward creating a paperless office. (Note, the design of this effort reflects the learning described in earlier columns on inertia and sales hurdles).

This effort led me to think about Twitter again.  I wondered if I could use the service to start building an audience that would be receptive to what we were planning.  In this second round of tests I started identifying people with an “eco” or “green” interest. At the same time, I moved from random “Tweets” to a clearly defined series: 100 services that save money and help the planet. Each day I added a new service to the list and each Tweet had the same format which began “#(insert number) of 100 services that save money and help the planet.”

After a few days, this more focused effort starting to lead to encouraging results. My followers count started to increase by 10 percent or more per day. So, while my total is still relatively small (about 450 followers as I type this) it was at 400 or so yesterday and 360 the day before that.

More significantly, an average of 14 people clicked on my messages when I had roughly 350 followers.  There was some re-tweeting of one of the messages, but I still view this as effectively a 4 percent click-through rate in relation to my number of followers. And as we all know, a 4 percent click-through rate on anything is a real success – and this is a free medium.

These highly preliminary results – even though the numbers are very small, may be meaningless, and I don’t know enough about the value of these visitors – lead me to a few initial conclusions:

First, my mantra that it’s worth testing initiatives you are certain will not work, provided you can do it with very limited resources, remains worth keeping. There may be something valuable here.

Second, both the evidence and logic suggest that the more targeted your interest group, the more likely you are to engage with the right Twitter audience.

Third (and probably most significantly), my numbered list strategy seemed to be a valuable means of demonstrating authority and expertise that allowed me to engage Twitter users. I had something of real value to these users, and communicated it appropriately.

Per my experiment strategy, it’s clear that these results warrant a jump in my efforts in the Twitter arena. Here are the next questions:  If I grow this group of followers, or groups of followers with other interests, will these same results hold and improve? And will this growth come easily? My models from other media (which may or may not apply to Twitter) suggest that with 10,000 targeted followers, an optimized effort, and minimal Tweeting, I should generate 500-1000 click-throughs a day.

In addition, the marketing value of the vocal Twitter audience could also be high.  If users coming from Twitter have a good experience, will they Tweet about it? This needs to be tested as well.

I’ve said before that what really matters is actual experience. Today, I believe even more strongly in this guiding principle.

Previous Start-up Chronicle columns:

• Learning to listen to unpleasant truths
• Newton was right: Inertia matters
• Who is invested in your success?
• Deadly sins that destroy Web sales – Part 1

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